Beaches off Perth, Australia, were closed Monday because of the sighting by a helicopter crew of a massive shark feeding frenzy. Video footage shows dozens of sharks, mostly blacktip and bronze whalers, in a spectacular assault on schooling bait fish and small tuna. See GrindTV
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Video: British Trials 2012 Mens 50 freestyle final
Pretty good video here shot on an iPhone 4 at the British Olympic Trials on Friday, 9 March 2012. If you look closely, you’ll notice a flash of red light on one of the center lanes at 0:31, that must be the light signal that Craig Lord mentions here on SwimNews:
The first swimmer home gets one light, the second two, the third three, while the lights do not come on for any other lanes. The effect is immediate, so in a 50m dash in which 0.02sec splits the first three men home, the winner can been identified more quickly by the instant light show on the blocks just above the place that everyone is watching rather than the display on the scoreboard.
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Olympic lessons with Geoff Huegill
“Dual Olympian Geoff Huegill talks about the evolution of the Australian Swimming Team, mentoring athletes and his almighty comeback. Skippy talks about the Olympic trials and his key rivals.” Via the17thman
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With the Aussie Trials coming up, here’s a Vegemite ad
Funny commercial here promoting the not-so-funny Australian food paste thingy called Vegemite. Tried it while staying in Shetland back in 1988, still remember the taste.
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Cost of Thorpe’s comeback worth every cent, says Perkins
Two-time Olympic gold medal winner Kieren Perkins dismisses those criticising the support Ian Thorpe has received in his comeback, saying “You couldn’t buy the publicity, the television coverage, the front and back-page articles that Ian’s return has generated, all these guys whingeing about the money … I think as long as Swimming Australia was using the money appropriately and transparently, there simply isni’t a problem.” Another interesting note in the article here on the Australian:
At 38, he has no grey whiskers to stroke while he muses over how things were better in his day. But the reality is that things really were better in his day.
There was more money in the sport, thanks in no small way to Telstra’s massive sponsorship, swimmers were among Australia’s highest-profile athletes – not just Thorpe and Perkins but also Grant Hackett, Michael Klim, Susie O’Neill, Samantha Riley, Hayley Lewis, Leisel Jones … the list goes on – and even their coaches became household names. And television ratings just kept going through the roof.
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CC photo #74: Chinese fans at Roma 2009
The Chinese team well equipped with gongs and banners on the final night of the Rome 2009 World Aquatics Championships.
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Video: The Berlin 1936 Olympic 200 breaststroke final
Wow, AMAZING footage here courtesy of the International Swimming Hall of Fame: “The 1936 Olympic final of the 200 meter breaststroke showcased three distinct styles of swimming the stroke at the time. American, John Higgins demonstrated the butterfly arm pull with the frog kick. Hamuro and Koike of Japan, and Sietas of Germany all used the traditional head-up breaststroke. Ito of Japan used a full arm pull with underwater recovery. After the war, the breaststroke used by Higgins was the preferred style. It wasn’t until after the 1952 Olympic Games that butterfly became a distinct stroke.”
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Is Thorpe foxing or genuinely nervous ?
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Thorpe looked surprised to see a throng of media awaiting his arrival in Adelaide, and quotes him for saying he is nervous. But The Daily Telegraph has this interesting article speculating that it might be all part of a plan, too keep expectation as low as possible, to minimize pressure.
Training in Switzerland was not just a way of avoiding media attention, it was the perfect hideout from spies trying to catch of glimpse of how hard he was training and what times he was posting.
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Missy Franklin wins Colorado Sportswoman of the Year
At the 38th annual Sportswomen of Colorado Awards on March 11, Missy Franklin won big one. Read Denver Post